Inspiration Often Doesn't Come Easily

There are many things that inspire me and inspiration can be found almost everywhere. However, when you are trying to produce art that will be meaningful to a specific person or persons ideas can evade you. I have been trying to come up with a piece of art for someone specific since December. I have asked relatives for ideas, gathered fabric and paper and perused books. As I don't know them as well as I thought I did, it was hard to choose a theme for them. I also want it to be a piece they would like to hang in their house somewhere. Early on, I did have an idea and began to take photos of hands with the idea to draw them and use them in the piece because these people minister to others. Hands to me, are a symbol of ministry. For a long time I didn't know how to use this subject as a completed work of art. I let it percolate in my head for a long time. Finally, I thought, I just have to start something. Usually when I start something, inspiration grows from that. So I started by drawing the hands.

Next I thought about how I could incorporate the fabric and ribbon and paper I had been given. The colour scheme of them was peachy/pink. How would I integrate it with the gray scale of the drawings?

I really loved some of the fabrics and ribbon but they were very feminine and the artwork was for a couple and so I wanted to tone the feminine aspect down. I decided to paint a canvas loosely with white, grey and black paint. I used a brayer, which is a rubber roller, to apply it so that the paint didn't mix to make a solid grey but remained as blotchy areas of white, grey and black.

This was the background upon which I would put my drawings of hands and also the lace and ribbon to tie it all together.

I have finished the piece which turned out to be a mixed media piece meaning I used canvas, acrylic paint, ribbon, paper, lace and marker. I am planning to have a black frame put on it. I can't show you the finished product until it has been delivered to its owners. So you'll have to check back in a few weeks for the result of this experiment.